22/07/2026
BONXIE
Status: 🔴
Rarity Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
My recent trip to Rathlin Island gifted me a gallery of unforgettable encounters — Black Guillemots slicing across the surf, Kittiwakes clinging to sheer cliff faces, Puffins bobbing like painted toys on the swell, and Fulmars gliding with effortless grace. Yet among all these moments, one photograph stands apart. It isn’t just my favourite shot from the trip; it might be the most treasured image I’ve ever taken of a bird whose population in Northern Ireland does not exceed two individuals- known colloquially as the 'Kebble Pair.'
It captures a creature that feels less like a bird and more like a force of nature — the Great Skua, known in Shetland as the Bonxie.
This is no gentle seabird. The Bonxie is the undisputed tyrant of the northern skies, a broad‑shouldered marauder built for intimidation. Its reputation is carved from centuries of ruthless efficiency: kleptoparasitism, the art of stealing food mid‑air, is not just a behaviour but a lifestyle. When a Bonxie locks onto a target, the chase becomes a spectacle- twisting arcs, sudden dives, and the inevitable surrender of some hapless gull or tern. Where the Bonxie flies, hierarchy collapses. Even the formidable Great Black‑backed Gull, a bird that usually throws its weight around, knows better than to cross paths with this aerial enforcer.
There’s a raw, almost mythic quality to seeing one up close. The heavy build, the cold amber eye, the confidence bordering on arrogance — a moment I will always remember as one of God's finest gifts.
